GENEVA (Reuters) - Arctic ice may be melting faster than
most climate change science has concluded, the conservation
group WWF said in a report published on Thursday.

It found that ice in Greenland and across the Arctic region
was retreating "at rates significantly faster than predicted in
previous expert assessments."

The Greenland Ice Sheet -- with an ice volume of about 2.9
million cubic kilometers -- is shrinking at a fast pace and
"could contribute much more than previously estimated to global
sea-level rise during the 21st century," the WWF said.

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It also said that Arctic warming has reduced both the area
and thickness of the northern region's multi-year sea ice,
making it more prone to summer thaw.

Many climate change scientists have inadequately considered
the drivers of such trends, such as interactions between sea
ice thickness and water temperature, according to WWF.

"The recent acceleration in sea-ice retreat is not captured
by most models," it said in the study reviewing global warming
research from 2005, including the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) reports issued last year.

"Our understanding of climate impacts lags behind the
changes we are already seeing in the Arctic," said Martin
Sommerkorn, a climate change adviser with WWF International's
Arctic Program.

"This is extremely dangerous, as some of these Arctic
changes have the potential to substantially warm the Earth
beyond what models currently forecast," he said.

WWF, formerly called the World Wildlife Fund and now known
by its initials, said that climate change has already affected
all aspects of ecology in the Arctic, including the region's
oceans, sea ice, ice sheets, snow and permafrost.

It called on Arctic nations -- including Canada, the United
States, Russia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark,
through its Greenland territory -- to work together to help the
region's communities adapt to the challenges ahead.

Fast-melting Arctic ice has the potential to cause coastal
erosion, impact indigenous peoples' livelihoods, affect marine
organisms, and make the region's mineral and other resources
more accessible with new, formerly inaccessible marine routes.

It could also have global effects, particularly causing
rising sea levels that could threaten coastal communities from
Bangladesh to the Netherlands to parts of the United States.

"We need to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases to
levels that will avoid the continued warming of the Arctic and
the anticipated resulting disruption of the global climate
system," Sommerkorn said.